Nurse Educators' Personal Perspectives of Long-Term Care Settings

Research during the past 40 years has reported negative attitudes toward older people by nurses and nursing students. To date, nurse educators' perceptions have not been specifically studied. Interview data from 14 baccalaureate nurse educators using a grounded theory approach described their personal perspectives related to long-term care settings. The study highlighted four major themes that clearly supported the view that these nurse educators harbored many of the same negative perspectives that nurses, nursing students, and other health care providers have about long-term care settings. One gerontology nurse specialist shed some positive perspectives on this topic. This study makes a recommendation for gerontology specialists to be directly involved in nurse education. Future research is needed with culturally diverse nurse educators in other national and international nursing programs.